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How-To Geek

Videophones, voice-controlled computers, heads-up displays, and other technological innovations made their first appearances in Sci-Fi. This dual timeline charts the first appearance in Sci-Fi against the date of commercial success for the product in the real world.

Jason Fitzpatrick is a warranty-voiding DIYer who spends his days cracking opening cases and wrestling with code so you don't have to. If it can be modded, optimized, repurposed, or torn apart for fun he's interested (and probably already at the workbench taking it apart). You can follow him on Twitter if you'd like.

Comments (16)

“Interplannetary Travel” first appeared in Sci Fi in 1980 (Star Wars V)? Really? They could have at least referred it to 2001 A Space Odyssey (which came out in 1968, not 1976, as they state elsewhere in the chart).

AT&T committee meeting:
“…and add a cheesy outer glow. It’s futuristic! like different colored LIGHT SABERS. can we add MORE lines to the background? grey diagonals, like websites from 2001… that gets the people going! i like it how my eyeballs to bleed from squinting from following light saber lines against the background”

But, as other have noted, the dates of attribution seem a little “off”. For example, they attribute the Star Trek handheld communicator to the 1984 Movie “Search for Spock” — not to the original TV series. Doubly odd since the photo they use is in fact from the TV series.

Seriously, I occasionally get a useful article from How-To-Geek…but it is getting more and more rare and this article is quite possibly the worst I’ve ever seen. That is the silliest piece of crap I’ve seen in weeks. Editors, please get your act together and start putting out less content if that is what it takes to increase the quality to noise ratio to something that is worth my time.